The Rise of Robot Factories & Androids

Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn, recently announced replacing 60,000 factory workers with robots. In effect, cutting the workforce in more than half from 110k to 50k thanks to the introduction of robots a government official told the South China Morning Post. This is happening in Apple and Samsung supplier manufacturing plants. 

Before 2020, a majority of companies are likely to follow suit. 

Thinktanks suggest that 30% of the worlds jobs will be automated in the next 15 years making the future of work an even more adaptive process for blue collar and service workers. 

The folklore quote of globalization  made in china, will soon actually correspond to actually just by a robot workforce likely in China, as investment in this area continues to grow as the bulk of manufacturing tasks that are repetitive will be done by robots. While news like this isn't new per se, it's starting to scale to massive proportions. 

Long-term job losses seem inevitable, with human beings taking care of and doing more high value-added elements of the manufacturing process, like R&D, quality and process control. 

China's Growing Automated Workforce - Spreading Trend

China's dominance in robotic automation of factories and manufacturing means the companies that own them are the real winners, while the common laborers are disrupted. I would like to see the numbers, but the age of automation promises a lot more job losses than the on-demand economy's new beginnings. 

Economists and future trends companies have stated that between one quarter and half of customer service, retail and manufacturing jobs will become obsolete by 2025, with one report, from consultants Deloitte in partnership with Oxford University, suggesting that 35% of jobs were at risk over the next 20 years, a pretty conservative estimate if you ask me. One thing is for sure, disruption of the blue collar workforce is global and will increasingly touch upon white collar workers as machine learning and AI scales with the evolution of quantum computing. 

When will the North American Service Sector Be Disrupted

With minimum wages seeing an increase to $15 an hour in many companies in the US, more companies will consider robot and android workers. Having a Pepper robot at the McDonalds take-out, really isn't so far fetched. Pizza Hut doesn't think so! 

If it's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who is inefficient, making $15 an hour bagging French fries, what do you expect to happen to the world?

 Foxconn assembles most of the world's iPhones, and together with Alibaba helps fund the company that makes Pepper androids. Whether it's robot factories in China or friendly androids in Japan, it's all influencing the world's economy and what influences Asia, ripples into North America. 

With pepper android adoption starting in Japan and robotic factories truly scaling in China, it's just another indication that a lot of innovation and change is coming out of Asia. Time will tell if Alibaba or Amazon have a greater stake in the future of the planet, but the robots and androids are here to stay.

The workforce of the planet is adapting, but not as quickly as things will be disrupted in the 2020s. The odd story of robotic factories and huge layoffs doesn't really hit home, until it does. 

How do you feel about jobs being lost in China due to more robotic automation? Will the same happen here?